


I Understood That Reference

by Crematosis



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Community: avengerkink, Gen, Tony Stark Is Not Helping, sassy Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-04-11 13:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4437845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crematosis/pseuds/Crematosis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Steve takes comfort in the fact that he's not the only one clueless about current pop culture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an avengerkink prompt

Steve was having a good morning. He had gone for an early run with Sam, had breakfast, and then hit the gym for a few hours. And since no one else seemed to be up yet, he was going to savor the peace and quiet and sketch out on the balcony for awhile.

But as he headed up the main hallway, Tony was passing by in the opposite direction, muttering some sort of equation under his breath. The genius was so deep in thought that he would have walked into the wall if Steve hadn't steered him back into the middle of the hallway.

"Oh, hey, Cap," Tony said, looking at him in surprise. "Any idea where young Luke Skywalker's run off to?"

"Who?"

"Bucky. You know, 'cause of the arm."

Steve stared at him blankly.

"Oh my god. He's from Star Wars. I can't believe you haven't seen any of the movies yet. I told you to see them like nine times and I don't know why you think I'm somehow misleading you and-"

"Relax," Steve said. "I put Star Wars on my list. Just haven't gotten the time to see it yet."

Tony huffed. "Sometimes I think you're just making a list of all the things you're planning on never seeing. Because every time I tell you about something cool, you put it on the list and then never get to it."

"That's not true."

"Uh-huh. Sure it isn't. Jarvis, play Cap the 'put it on the list' compilation."

Jarvis brought up a holographic screen and began playing various moments when the team had suggested pop culture events Steve needed to check out. And Steve watched himself scribble item after item on the list without really crossing any of the others off.

After the twelfth scene, Steve conceded defeat. Maybe he did do a better job of making the list of things to experience than actually experiencing them.

"And now for the remix," Tony declared. "Hit it, J."

Steve frowned as the footage distorted and his voice became deeper, the words stretched into something almost unintelligible. And then there was weird electronic wails and a heavy drumbeat over the whole thing.

"Uh, Tony? I think the video's broken," he said hesitantly.

"Nah, it's supposed to sound like this," Tony said cheerfully.

Natasha marched through the image, brandishing a wooden spoon. "What is that hideous noise?" she demanded. "I can hear it all the way from the kitchen."

"Dubstep," Tony said. "Over Steve's vocals. Pretty awesome, right?"

"No," Natasha said. "It was terrible in 2003 and it's terrible now. Turn it off."

With a sigh, Tony gestured for Jarvis to cut the video.

Steve blinked in the sudden silence. He hadn't realized how loud the "music" had been until he couldn't hear it anymore. "Wow," he said. "Is this actually popular music?"

"Not really," Natasha said. "I don't think it's ever been that popular, but it was a lot more popular when the whole dubstep genre started in the late nineties, early 2000's." She gave Tony a scornful look. "He's still stuck in the past."

"I am not," Tony protested.

"Oh really? I don't recall a single movie or TV show you recommended to Steve from the last decade."

"Because those are classics. He needs to see them before he sees anything else. The Godfather is up there on the list of the American Film Institute's top 100 movies. And so is Star Wars."

"I'll give you a pass on Star Wars," Natasha said. "Steve does need to have some background if you want to show him the new movie."

"You're not talking about the terrible prequel, are you?"

"Prequels," Natasha said. "And, no."

Tony waved a hand dismissively. "Still not as good as the original. Didn't feel a damn thing for any of the characters. They were just a bunch of random people."

Natasha's eyes sparkled. "You know, the movie coming out this year is supposed to bring all the old characters back. Luke, Leia, Han."

Tony lit up. "They're making a new movie? That's awesome. Let me know when it's coming out so I can arrange for us us all to have a private screening. Because there's nothing like seeing Star Wars on the big screen." He sighed happily. "I remember back when the first movie came out. God damn, it was glorious. Han was always my favorite character of course. A lovable scamp with roguish good looks. Just like me."

Natasha snorted.

"Seriously," Tony said. "If I had to be anybody in the entire franchise, I would be Han. And naturally, Pepper would be Leia."

"You're certainly giving Pepper a good role in this hypothetical casting," Natasha said with a smirk. "Are you in the doghouse this week?"

"Uh, no. It's because Leia is Han's love interest and if I'm Han, Pepper would have to be my love interest. Canonically speaking, of course," he said, waggling his eyebrow. "Unless we want to explore the far galaxies of what-ifs and have Han and Leia eventually breaking up and Han turning to his old buddy Chewie for comfort."

"That's disgusting," she said. "But why am I not surprised?" She shook her head. "I'm only surprised you didn't make yourself Luke Skywalker. Because you seem to think you're the only one who can really save the world all the time."

"Hell no. Bucky's Luke. Which would make him Pepper's brother, weirdly." Tony frowned thoughtfully. "Yeah, that would be kind of weird. But anyway, like I was telling Steve, it works because both of them lost an...oh shit, Bucky's new arm. I have to get back down to the lab before the thing explodes."

"Explodes?" Steve asked with alarm.

"No time to explain," Tony said as he jogged backwards towards the elevator. "Science!" And then he took off into a full run.

Steve sighed heavily and flicked his gaze upwards. "Okay, Buck, coast's clear. Come on down."

There was a scraping noise overhead and then Bucky poked his head out of the airduct. "Aw. How did you even know I was up there?"

"I could hear you snickering," Steve said.

Bucky dropped down into the hallway. "Damn your super hearing. But how did you know it wasn't Clint?"

"Because you're the only one who still giggles like a maniac every time Tony so much as breathes."

"I can't help it. He's hilarious." Bucky grinned and elbowed Steve in the side. "He's told me a few stories of all the crazy shit you guys got into without me."

Steve slung an arm over Bucky's shoulder. "Speaking of crazy shit, you want to tell me why Tony's building you an explosive arm?"

Bucky scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Tony may have gotten the idea from Tekken. There's a cyborg guy in the game that shoots his fist at people. And Tony thought it would be an awesome upgrade for my arm."

Steve shook his head. "Of course he did. I don't think he's slept the past few days. Everything probably sounds awesome to him by now."

"He's a walking lab accident," Natasha agreed.

"He should be sleeping," Steve said. "Not playing videogames."

Bucky shrugged. "Videogames are awesome. He's got a PS2 set up in the lab and every time I come down to visit-"

"A PS2," Natasha interrupted. "Really?"

"Why?" Bucky asked warily. "Is there something wrong with it?"

"We're up to the PS4 now. But Tony probably has no idea." Natasha shook her head. "I didn't realize how bad it had gotten. We're going to have to drag him out of his cave and reacquaint him with modern society."


	2. Chapter 2

On Friday, Natasha declared a mandatory movie night. Bruce and Tony protested at first because they had some experiment running down in the lab, but they quickly changed their minds when she informed them that they were going to be watching a Star Trek reboot.

“Great idea,” Steve said as he settled onto the couch between Bucky and Clint. “A movie that we can finally all agree on.”

“And you can cross Star Trek off your list,” Bucky said.

Steve brightened.

“Uh-uh,” Tony said. “It doesn't count until you've seen the original. This could be a complete piece of trash with none of the charm and intelligence of-”

“Shut up,” Natasha said. “Movie's starting.”

Tony was quiet for about fifteen minutes and then he started playing film critic. “It's not bad,” he said. “The guy playing Kirk's actually decent. But not the same as Shatner.” He nudged Bruce. “Remember Shatner? He always talked. Like. This. For no good reason.”

Bruce chuckled. “He did.”

“So, I guess it's better in a way. More serious, less campy. Like all the action movies these days. But I still miss the original cast.”

Clint grinned. “Speaking of the original cast, there's a fun surprise later.”

Tony lapsed back into silence, staring avidly at the screen as the events unfolded. But he couldn't contain himself when Old Spock appeared onscreen.

“Oh god, is that really Leonard Nimoy? Fuck, he's what, in his eighties now?”

Clint shifted uncomfortably. “Actually, he's dead.”

“What?” Tony exclaimed. “When did this happen?”

“February 27th of this year,” Jarvis said.

“That's terrible,” Bruce said. “All the Trekkies are probably still in mourning.”

Tony nodded sagely. “Posting a bunch of tributes on their Myspace pages.”

Clint and Natasha exchanged a glance. “Not so much,” she said.

“What? That's an outrage.” Tony jumped up from the couch. “I'm going to update my profile then.”

Natasha steered him back to the couch. “Myspace isn't really a thing anymore,” she said.

Tony looked stricken. “Did Tom die too?”

“Not as far as I know. The website just died. We're all on Facebook now.”

“Ah,” Tony said. “Good for Facebook. Last I heard, it was getting almost as popular as Myspace. But I guess it's gone way past that.”

“We'll have to make you a Facebook account later,” Clint said. “Just to get you back with the times.”

“It's really easy,” Steve said. “Natasha helped me and Bucky make one last week.”

“Fuck,” Tony said. “If even Cap's got one, I definitely need one. Can't have you all making me look bad.”

“You should get on Vine and Instagram, too,” Bucky piped up.

“Uhhh,” Tony said. He looked at Bruce, who just shrugged.

“This Vine you speak of,” Thor said. “Is it not another of your plant-themed computer products?”

“Nope,” Clint said. “It's a place to post super-short videos of stuff.” He leaned over the armrest of the couch to show Thor something on his phone.

“Ah,” Thor said. “I understand now. Vine is the website in which to post all of your videos of friends swinging on vines. It's fascinating how many websites are developed for such a specific purpose.”

“It's actually a rope,” Clint said. “And, okay, maybe I shouldn't have showed you the guy swinging out over the river first thing. It's kind of a bad example. Let me show you something else.” He typed furiously on his phone.

“Whatever happened to Youtube?” Tony demanded. “Is that not good enough anymore?”

“Hey, Youtube's great,” Clint said. “But if you really want to get yourself out there, you post things across all the social media platforms you can. Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, Spapchat-”

“Some of us would really rather not,” Bruce said.

“Hey, no big deal,” Clint said. “You don't have to make yourself a Facebook page if you don't want to. I'm just making sure you know it exists.”

“Like the PS4,” Bucky said. 

Tony's eyes went wide. “There's a four? Holy shit, we've missed all the games from three. Jarvis, order a PS4 immediately. And a bunch of games. And then see about finding some PS3 games. And-”

“No, no, no,” Steve said. “You don't sleep enough as it is. You don't need to be catching up on years of gaming at this point.” He shot Bucky a dirty look.

“Can we finish this discussion after the movie?” Natasha said. “I'm sure you all want to watch more of Chris Pine's acting.”

“Oh, sure,” Tony said. “The movie's great.”

And then he had a brief whispered discussion with Bruce about who exactly Chris Pine was. They eventually concluded that he had to be the actor playing Spock.

Natasha's face had taken on a pinched look as they talked. So either their conversation was interfering with her enjoyment of the movie or they were so terribly wrong that it was upsetting her.

Steve was willing to bet the latter.


	3. Chapter 3

“Okay,” Natasha said the next Friday. “New plan. We're going to do a trivia game to test your knowledge of current events.”

“And what does the winner get?” Tony asked.

“You mean, besides the comforting knowledge that you're not as out of touch with the rest of the world as we all thought?” Clint asked.

“Yeah, that's not really a prize. But, hey, if you're out of ideas, I could give you a few suggestions.” He winked in Natasha's direction.

“Here's one I know you'll like,” she said. “If you win the trivia game, Clint and I will fill out the next incident report you have to do.”

“We will?” Clint asked in surprise.

She gave him a long look and Clint nodded sagely. “Yeah, okay. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“Alright. Let's do this thing.” Tony rubbed his hands together with glee. “Who am I playing against? Thor? Steve?”

“You five will be playing,” Clint said, indicating Steve, Bucky, Tony, Thor, and Bruce.

Steve nodded determinedly. He didn't really need the prize since he was a lot more careful about causing property damage than most of the team, but he couldn't back down from a challenge. 

“Oh,” Tony said. “This is a bigger competition than I thought.”

Steve smirked. “What's the matter, Stark? Afraid of losing?”

“Hell no,” Tony said. “Bring on the trivia.”

“So, tonight's category is TV and movies.” Natasha reached for a short pile of cards on the coffee table and turned over the first one. “What's the name of the actor who played Sherlock Holmes in the popular TV series-”

“Oh!” Steve said. “Basil Rathbone.”

Natasha gave him a withering look. “-Sherlock, a modern-day adaptation, which aired its first season in 2010?”

“Never mind,” Steve said sheepishly.

“Oh, I know this one,” Bucky said. “Benedict Cumberbatch.”

Tony made an exaggerated expression of shock. “Bucky,” he said sternly. “We don't use that kind of filthy language in this house.”

Bucky flipped him off. “It's his name, idiot. Not a curse word.”

“One point for Bucky,” Natasha said as she shuffled the cards.

“I think Bucky should be disqualified from this game,” Tony said. “He's gotten to travel all around the world the last few years. He's seen way more than the rest of us have.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “Sure. Because Hydra was all about those cat videos and Taylor Swift songs.”

“See?” Tony said. “He knows all this stuff already.”

“Well, I guess it's a good thing we're not quizzing you about cat videos,” Natasha said serenely. She picked out another card. “Here's an easy one. Because we watched the movie just last week.” She cleared her throat. “In the 2009 reboot, Star Trek: Into Darkness, which actor-”

“Chris Pine,” Tony blurted out.

Natasha sighed. “I didn't finish reading the question yet.”

“But am I right?” he demanded.

“Yes,” she said. “Unfortunately.”

“Boo-ya!” Tony said with a fist pump in the air. “One point for me.” He gave Bucky a high five. “Look at us. We're winning.”

Natasha shook her head. “For the rest of you, the question asked which actor portrayed Captain Kirk. And that is, of course, Chris Pine.”

“Right,” Tony said. “I knew that.”

She gave him an unimpressed look and pulled out the next card. “In the movie Wall-E, which snack food does Wall-E's cockroach friend use as a bed?”

“Pop-tarts,” Thor said eagerly.

“Nope.”

“A wafer cookie.”

“I'll give you a hint. In 2012, they were temporarily discontinued because Hostess filed for bankruptcy.”

“Ah,” Thor said. “The Twinkie.”

“Correct.”

“What?!” Tony exclaimed. “How can Twinkies be discontinued? Out of everything on the market, Twinkies are the one thing that everyone was sure would be around forever.”

“I don't think they were actually discontinued,” Bruce said. “I'm sure I saw some in the pantry last week.”

“The key word was 'temporarily'.” Natasha shook her head. “I suppose I should be grateful that you were all blissfully ignorant of the big rush on Twinkies.” She gave Clint a look. “Some of us might have paid a fortune for the last few boxes and all for nothing since they came back a few months later anyway.”

Clint grinned sheepishly. “What can I say? Junk food's the best.”

“And moving on,” Natasha said.

At the end of the trivia game, Bucky had twelve points, Steve had five, Tony had four, Bruce had three, and Thor had two.

And just like Steve had anticipated, Tony was a sore loser.

“I told you Bucky was way too good at this,” he said sulkily. “He knows things.”

“The point is for all of you to know things,” Natasha reminded him. “Bucky's put in a lot of work regaining his memories and acquainting himself with modern pop culture. So he deserves a reward for his effort. And next week, he can take it easy while the rest of you work on your knowledge of modern literature. And I hope you really put in an effort next week because today was just sad.” She shook her head as she slipped a rubber band over the cards.

“Damn,” Clint said. “You all got told.”

Tony huffed and slouched down into the couch. 

“You're going to kick ass next week in my place,” Bucky said. He gave Steve a high-five. “Team 1940s for the win.”


	4. Chapter 4

Steve was a little alarmed when Tony staggered into the den the next Friday looking even more sleep-deprived than usual. “Are you okay?” he asked hesitantly. “You're not getting sick, are you?”

Tony waved a hand dismissively. “I was up late studying for our little game.” His eyes narrowed. “I want to win this time.”

Natasha smiled and put her feet up on the armrest. “So, did you learn anything?”

“Yeah. There's a hell of a lot of stories about vampires these days.”

Natasha sighed. “I'm not quizzing you on any vampire books.”

“So, you're telling me I read the entire Twilight series for nothing?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Natasha said cheerfully.

“Fuck. What about Fifty Shades of Gray?”

“Forget you ever read it,” Natasha advised. “It's a terrible book.”

“But it's popular right now. Don't you want us to know what's popular?”

“You know it exists,” Natasha said. “That's good enough.”

Clint cleared this throat and reached for the deck of trivia cards. “Let's put all that stuff behind us and focus on our little game, okay?”

Tony immediately leaned forward and rubbed his hands together gleefully. “I am so fucking ready for this. Bring it on.”

Clint flipped over the first card. “Uh, this book and the movie of the same name feature a romance between a zombie named R and a human girl named Julia, and is supposedly kind of like Romeo and Juliet or something.” He rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Nat. Twilight is bad but you support this kind of crap?”

“Maybe you should write the questions next time,” she said scornfully.

“Zombie movies, zombie movies. Let's see.” Tony held up one hand and started ticking movies off on his fingers. “28 Days Later, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead.”

“Shaun of the Dead,” Bruce added.

“Oh yeah. That's a good one.”

“Then there's I am Legend, Zombieland those Resident Evil movies and then, uh....”

“Romeo Must Die?” Thor offered.

Clint grimaced. “Not a zombie movie, dude.”

Thor shrugged. “You did say it was based off of your tale of Romeo and Juliet.”

“You and I are going to have a serious talk about Jet Li later,” Clint said with a shake of his head. “Come on, guys, zombie romance novel made into a movie. It's probably PG-13, if that. Nothing good and gory.”

“I don't think any of us has read that book,” Steve said. “No matter how many hints you give us, we're just not going to be able to think of the title if we've never heard of it.”

“Yeah, alright. We'll come back to that one later.” Clint stuck it at the bottom of the deck and picked up another card. He frowned and exchanged a glance with Natasha. “I thought we were doing modern literature?”

“2003 wasn't that long ago,” Natasha said serenely.

Clint shrugged. “If you say so. Which book, published in 2003 by Robert Langdon, was the focus of-”

“The Da Vinci Code,” Bruce said suddenly.

Tony and Bruce were suddenly in their element, blurting out answers before the questions were even finished. Steve managed to answer one question about Harry Potter before the others, but he was completely lost as everyone went on about the Kite Runner, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and some books by Stephen King.

At the end of the day, Clint tallied up the points and determined that Bruce had beaten Tony by only a small margin.

“Look at that,” Tony said. “Team Modern Day is kicking ass, too.”


	5. Chapter 5

Steve thought he would do well on music week. After all, he liked to listen to music while he went for his morning run. The Trouble Man album Sam had recommended was his favorite. He had listened to it so many times that he was sure he could answer any trivia question Natasha or Clint came up with.

But, to his dismay, he realized the album came out in 1972, which made it almost as old as Tony was. And the rest of his workout playlist wasn’t any more recent. Which was a depressing thought.

He resigned himself to another week of not winning the quiz game when the first song Clint played for them to identify was a pop tune Steve didn’t recognize. But from everyone else’s groan, it was clear that they did.

“Oh god,” Tony said. “Taylor Swift. Every time I turn on the radio I hear that damn song.”

“So then you have to know what the song’s called,” Natasha said cheerfully.

“Uhh,” Tony said. 

“Style,” Thor said confidently.

“Correct,” Natasha said.

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Clint, play them the next song.”

Tony complained about the next three songs that Natasha had for them to identify. “Oh come on, we’ve all heard these songs a billion times. Have we proved that we’re normal, well-adjusted people now?”

“And yet,” Natasha said, “You still haven’t identified a single song or artist.”

Tony huffed. “I recognized Taylor Swift, okay? That’s got to count for something.”

“Doesn’t make up for you thinking Dolly Parton sang a Miley Cyrus song.”

“Eh, they’re both country singers. All country sounds the same.”

Natasha shook her head and gave him a pitying look. “Next one, Clint.”

Steve made a face as the song started up. 

“Oh!” Tony said. “I know this one. Uh…uh, Kanye West? Eminem? Actually, no. Definitely not Eminem. Sounds kind of like that stupid Antidote song guy. Sort of. Maybe.”

“Drake,” Thor said calmly. “Hotline Bling.”

“Oh for Christ’s sake,” Tony muttered. “This song deserves to be called Slow, Plodding Nonsense. Nothing hot about it.”

“Is there anything happening in rock lately? Any Metallica, Rolling Stones, AC/DC. Oh, is anything happening with Axl Rose lately? Any more public meltdowns or explosions or anything of note?”

“Next song!”

Steve stayed out of the rest of the trivia game. It was just more of Tony desperately struggling to think of the song while Thor cut over his babbling with the correct name.

“And the winner, by a landslide, is Thor,” Clint announced.

Tony still looked shell-shocked. “How did this even happen?” he demanded. “How did Thor get to be an expert in today's music?”

“You forget that I am acquainted with Darcy Lewis,” Thor said. “She has an astonishing number of songs on her iPod device.”

“That's cheating,” Tony said.

Natasha put a hand on her hip. “How is that cheating? You have an iPod, too, don't you? And I know you can afford to buy every single song Darcy owns and then some.”

“But he had outside help,” Tony whined. “Someone to point out all the popular stuff.”

Natasha gave him a long look and then shook her head. 

Steve was forced to agree with her. Tony was pretty hopeless. But then again, he wasn’t much better.


	6. Chapter 6

For the final round of quizzing, Natasha forced the rest of the team to return to the den to watch as Tony and Steve competed for the last time.

Steve could have frankly done without the audience.

At least Bruce was a quiet spectator, and Thor wasn’t cheering on anybody in particular, just enthusiastic about the game in general. But Bucky veered between loudly rooting for him and berating him every time he missed an “easy” question. He already put up with another trash talking from Tony, he didn’t need it from his best friend, too.

“C’mon, Buck, let’s be nice,” he said imploringly as Bucky made an L shape with two fingers after Tony botched Rudy Guiliani’s name. “Tony’s your friend, right?”

“Sure he is,” Bucky said cheerfully. “But you’re my best friend and I’m rooting for you.”

“Do you have to root so aggressively?” Steve said with a sigh. 

“This is nothing,” Bucky said. “You should see me at baseball games.”

Somehow, Steve wasn’t surprised.

Clint cleared his throat. “At the 2003 AMAs, Madonna set off a media frenzy by kissing who on stage?”

“Britney Spears,” Steve said happily. “Agent Hill actually told me about it my first week out of the ice. Her way of gauging how much sensitivity training I’d need or something.”

“Okay, cool,” Clint said. “Point for Cap and-”

“She kissed Cristina, too,” Tony muttered mutinously. 

“Sure, she did, but-”

“I was there,” Tony said insistently. “Pepper was on one of her publicity kicks and it was supposed to be good for me to be seen in public or whatever. So, I saw the whole thing in person.”

“Nobody cared that she kissed Christina,” Bucky pointed out. “The Britney kiss was the one that made a big scandal.”

“So? She still kissed both of them.”

Clint sighed and gave Natasha an imploring look. “Well?”

Natasha shrugged. “One point for each of them.”

“Well then,” Clint said. “Moving on. Who’s the current governor of New York?”

“You’re kidding me, right? I know you guys think I’m behind on the times, but this is ridiculous.”

“And yet, you’re not answering the question,” Natasha said.

“De Blasio?” Tony said hopefully.

“That’s the mayor,” Natasha said patiently. “He’s in charge of New York City itself. We’re looking for the name of the governor, the man in charge of the whole state.”

“Jesus Christ, Nat. I know the difference between the two. I’m not an idiot.”

“Could have fooled me.” Natasha turned a winning smile to Steve. “Now, Cap, I’m sure you know-”

“Hang on a minute,” Tony hissed. “I know the guy. Don’t really like him, but Pepper makes me play nice, you know. It’s uh, Cuomo. That’s it.”

Natasha nodded. “There’s hope for you after all. One point for Tony.”

“Oh, come on,” Bucky whined. “Stevie, you knew that one.”

“Can we throw him out for being a nuisance?” Steve asked. “Please?”

“Ignore him,” Natasha said. “We’re almost through the questions now and I just want to get this over with. Clint, next question!”

Steve huffed and settled in for the last four questions. He could do this. He had survived war, for goodness sake. He could put up with a little teasing.

But it was a relief when Natasha announced the last question.

“So, who won?” Tony asked anxiously. “Me, right?”

Natasha frowned as she shuffled through the question cards. “Actually, both of you have the same score.”

“We're tied? How is that even possible?” Tony demanded. “There were twenty-five questions.”

“We gave you both a point on that one question,” Clint said. “And I’m regretting that right now.”

Steve sighed. “It’s okay. I’ll let Tony win.” Lord knows Tony needed more help with his reports than he did.

“Aw, Cap, you’re the best.”

Tony thumped Steve on the back and then treated everyone to his bizarre victory dance, which consisted of him twirling around in a circle and singing, “Everything is awesome. Everything is cool when you're part of a team. Everything is awesome when we're living our dream.”

Natasha stared at him. “What the hell was that?”

“It’s from the Lego Movie,” Tony said. “You know, the Lego Movie? Will Ferrell as the evil businessman, Morgan Freeman as a wizard, and Batman because why not?"

Natasha continued to stare.

“What? You never heard of it? Jesus, Nat. Try to keep up with the times, would you? You're making the rest of us look bad.”

Tony went off to retrieve the movie, insisting that it was mandatory viewing. While he was gone, Natasha and Clint gave each other a surreptitious high five.

“I think our work here is done.”


End file.
